Whenever someone joins this Writer’s March, I ask for an exercise that they’d like to
share. This year, several responses had less to do about one-time things and more about the daily writing people do to help form good habits. Reading these changed the way I think about exercises. I always thought they something you did when you were stuck or wanting to get started, something that changed every time. I hadn’t considered the way we could turn the exercise into something that “unsticks” us on a daily basis.

This morning, as we ate breakfast, Randi told me about how habits are formed. I’ve written about this before, but I hadn’t thought of how those habits are related to the processes of our brains. As Randi explained, rather than thinking about the left and right sides of the brain, think instead of the front and back. The front of the brain processes information that is new. That new information, if repeated often enough (30 days, ahem!), moves to the back of the brain to form habits. Once things are habits, they become easier to do because we no longer have to think about doing them. On Sunday, she’ll offer more insight on this (specifically on how to break the bad habits), so I don’t want to give it all away, but here on Day 3, I thought it would be cool to see the habits that are already in place. These are things the rest of us might steal either for the entirety of March or just for the day: Continue reading →